With the date of the National Assembly rerun election in Sokoto fixed, many people in the state wonder if Governor Aminu Tambuwal can make it to the Senate if he ends his current tenure on May 29, 2023.
The people’s position is premised on the reported dwindling fortunes of Tambuwal’s party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
The biggest of them all was the party losing the governorship seat to the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Ahmed Aliyu in the last governorship election conducted in the state.
Then the crisis that aborted the National Assembly election in which Tambuwal was leading his closest opponent, Senator Ibrahim Danbaba Dambuwa of the APC with almost 7,000 votes before it was declared inconclusive.
A public affairs commentator in the state, Ibrahim Adamu Tudun Doki, told the 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that many voters, especially PDP supporters would not come out to vote in the rerun election because of the unimpressive performance of their party at the last elections in the state.
“Party supporters were demoralized and feel coming out to vote again would amount to a waste of time and energy,” he said
Doki predicted protest votes because some supporters of the PDP have been accusing the Governor of not doing enough in his support to the party during the last election.
“These people felt betrayed and short-changed. They are seeing the Governor as a betrayal who doesn’t deserve their vote, believing if he wins, he would permanently relocate to Abuja and never come back to them.
“Some of these supporters may decide not to come out during the election while some may come out but vote for the candidate of the APC in protest of their perceived betrayal by the Governor.
Doki said civil servants who identified themselves with the PDP in the last election would do a U-turn now to support the incoming APC administration if only to save their jobs.
According to Doki, “There are also sycophants who always try to identify themselves with the winning party because our people are not used to opposition politics.
“So the Governor and his party need to work harder to convince their supporters to come out and vote during the supplementary election,” he said
A resident of Tambuwal, the hometown of the Governor and one of the areas where the rerun would take place, who simply identified himself as Malam Muhammad told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that Governor Tambuwal may not win the election because even his kinsmen are angry with him for not doing enough for the area.
“Even some of their supporters feel ashamed to identify with their party. They are now a laughing stock because they lost both at the national and the state level,” he said
Betrayal: Tea joint talk
A close aide of Governor Tambuwal, Commissioner for Commerce, Abdullahi Yusuf Hausawa said those accusing his boss of betrayal were not fair to him.
He likened the assertion to a tea joint discussion which doesn’t hold water.
“This is just a tea joint discussion which every right-thinking individual is supposed to disregard because it is not the truth,” he said
On the possible voter’s apathy, he said it could be possible because some supporters were yet to recover from the shock of the last election. “They feel coming out to vote is another waste of time,” he said
PDP optimistic
The ruling PDP said it was optimistic of victory at the supplementary poll.
A statement issued by the spokesperson of the party, Hassan Sahabi Sayyinawal, said “we are fully ready to participate in the forthcoming supplementary elections.
“We are optimistic of winning all the Senatorial and National Assembly seats to be contested for during the polls.
The party, however, called on its supporters to disregard any form of intimidation from any quarters and come out en masse to vote for PDP candidates during the elections.
It also called for the provision of adequate security personnel in all the polling units affected to ensure violence-free elections.
The statement also called on political actors, the general public and the INEC officials to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections.
